different between scheme vs shift

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin sch?ma (“figure, form”), from Ancient Greek ????? (skhêma, “form, shape”), from ??? (ékh?, “I hold”). Doublet of schema. Compare sketch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ski?m/
• Rhymes: -i?m

Noun

scheme (plural schemes)

1. A systematic plan of future action.
   • c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects

     The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
2. A plot or secret, devious plan.
3. An orderly combination of related parts.

   • the appearance and outward scheme of things

   • 1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; at the Funeral of My. Tho. Bennett

     such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity

   • 1754, Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will

     arguments […] sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy
4. A chart or diagram of a system or object.
   • April 29, 1694, Robert South, A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey

     to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France

5. (mathematics) A type of geometric object.
6. (Britain, chiefly Scotland) A council housing estate.
   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 101:

     It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.

7. (rhetoric) An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
8. (astrology) A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.
9. (Internet) Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
10. (Britain, pensions) A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.

Usage notes

In the US, generally has devious connotations, while in the UK, frequently used as a neutral term for projects: “The road is closed due to a pavement-widening scheme.”

Synonyms

• (a systematic plan of future action): blueprint

Derived terms

• colour scheme
• pilot scheme

Descendants

• ? Malay: skim

Translations

Verb

scheme (third-person singular simple present schemes, present participle scheming, simple past and past participle schemed)

1. (intransitive) To plot, or contrive a plan.
2. (transitive) To plan; to contrive.
   • 1908, Bohemian Magazine (volume 15, page 381)

     He schemed a plot. He made use of the hotel's stationery to write a letter.

Translations

References

• Silva Rhetoricae

Anagrams

• Meches

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?m?/

Verb

scheme

1. (reflexive) to be ashamed

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Middle Low German

Etymology

From Old Saxon skimo (“shadow”). Originally masculine.

Pronunciation

• Stem vowel: ?¹
  • (originally) IPA^(key): /sk??m?/

Noun

scheme m or f

1. A shadow, a shade; a darkness created by an object obstructing light
2. A shadow, a shade; something which is barely perceptible or not physical

   ...lose se van der walt der dusternisse unde van deme scheme des dodes. (" ...free them from the power of darkness and the shadow of death." )

3. A shimmer; a soft or weak occurrence of light
4. twilight; the lighting conditions at dusk and dawn
5. A face mask
6. aureola

Alternative forms

• sceme

English

Etymology

From Middle English schiften, from Old English s?iftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijan?, *skiptijan?, from earlier *skipatjan? (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) enPR: sh?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• (Canada)
• Rhymes: -?ft

Noun

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

1. (historical) A type of women's undergarment, a slip.

   Just last week she bought a new shift at the market.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 47

     Some wear black shifts and flesh-coloured stockings; some with curly hair, dyed yellow, are dressed like little girls in short muslin frocks.

2. A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.

   We'll work three shifts a day till the job's done.

3. An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

   There was a shift in the political atmosphere.

   • c. 1620-1626, Henry Wotton, letter to Nicholas Pey

     My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air.
4. (US) The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.

   Does it come with a stick-shift?

5. Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).

   If you press shift-P, the preview display will change.

6. (computing) A bit shift.
7. (baseball) The infield shift.

   Teams often use the shift against this lefty.

8. (Ireland, crude slang, often with the definite article, usually uncountable) The act of kissing passionately.
9. (archaic) A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
   • 1596, Shakespeare, History of King John

     If I get down, and do not break my limbs,

     I'll find a thousand shifts to get away:

     As good to die and go, as die and stay.

10. (archaic) A trick, an artifice.
    • 1593, Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

      And if the boy have not a woman's gift

      To rain a shower of commanded tears,

      An onion will do well for such a shift

    • Little souls on little shifts rely.

11. (construction) The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
12. (mining) A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
13. (genetics) A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
14. (music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shift (third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted)

1. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To move from one place to another; to redistribute.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To change in form or character; swap.
   • 2008, June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism (page ix)

     As a result, I shifted my approach to focus on group-generated activities and broadened the chronological time frame.

3. (intransitive) To change position.

4. (intransitive, India) To change residence; to leave and live elsewhere.

   Synonym: move

5. (obsolete, transitive) To change (clothes, especially underwear).
   • , II.ii.2:

     'Tis very good to wash his hands and face often, to shift his clothes, to have fair linen about him, to be decently and comely attired […].

6. (obsolete, transitive, reflexive) To change (someone's) clothes; sometimes specifically, to change underwear.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act V, Scene 5,^[3]

     As it were, to ride day and night; and […] not to have patience to shift me.

   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.21:

     The first thing he did was to secure a convenient lodging at the inn where he dined; then he shifted himself, and according to the direction he had received, went to the house of Mrs. Gauntlet […] .

7. (intransitive) To change gears (in a car).

8. (typewriters) To move the keys of a typewriter over in order to type capital letters and special characters.
9. (computer keyboards) To switch to a character entry mode for capital letters and special characters.
10. (transitive, computing) To manipulate a binary number by moving all of its digits left or right; compare rotate.

11. (transitive, computing) To remove the first value from an array.
12. (transitive) To dispose of.

13. (intransitive) To hurry; to move quickly.
14. (Ireland, vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual petting.
15. (archaic) To resort to expedients for accomplishing a purpose; to contrive; to manage.
    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflexions, London: R. Sare et al., Fable 83, Reflexion, p. 81,^[4]

      […] men in distress will look to themselves in the First Place, and leave their Companions to Shift as well as they can.

    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 112,^[5]

      My Fellow-Slaves were […] as courteous to me as I could well-expect; and as they had Plantations of their own, they gave me […] such Victuals as they had; especially on dark Nights, and at such Times as I could not shift for myself.

16. To practice indirect or evasive methods.
    • 1614, Walter Raleigh, History of the World, London: Walter Burre, Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 7, p. 45,^[6]

      But this I dare auow of all those Schoole-men, that though they were exceeding wittie, yet they better teach all their Followers to shift, then to resolue, by their distinctions.

17. (music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.

Synonyms

• (to change, swap): interchange, swap; See also Thesaurus:switch
• (to move from one place to another): relocate, transfer; See also Thesaurus:move
• (to change position): reposition
• (to dispose of): get rid of, remove; See also Thesaurus:junk
• (to hurry): hasten, rush; See also Thesaurus:rush
• (to engage in sexual petting): fondle, grope; see also Thesaurus:fondle

Antonyms

• (computing): unshift

Derived terms

• ever-shifting, evershifting
• preshift
• unshift

Translations

Portuguese

Noun

shift m (plural shifts)

1. shift (button on a keyboard)